Prison overcrowding

Bryce Graham Jr. gets frustrated when someone is convicted of a crime and sentenced to a lengthy prison term only to return home a few months later.

"It makes me mad when it happens, but there's nothing I can do," said Graham, the district attorney for Colbert County. "The reason for so many people getting sent home on parole after serving just a few months of a sentence that was supposed to last for several years is very simple. There's just not any place to keep them locked up."

Brian Corbett, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections, said the state has 24,622 convicts locked up in prisons designed to hold 12,682 inmates.

He said the Department of Correction has no say in when prisoners are released early on parole to make room for other inmates being sent to is prisons. "The Department of Corrections has no control over who is sent to us or how long they stay."

Corbett said the state Board of Pardons and Paroles determines which inmates are sent home early. He said the board has strict guidelines it must follow in deciding when inmates can be sent home early. "It has to be done per the law."

Robert Oakes, assistant executive director of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, said releasing non-violent inmates on parole frees up prison space and saves money for the state. It costs $36 to $38 per day to keep an inmate in prison, but only $2 a day for them to be on parole.

He said it would be impossible for the state to require every inmate convicted of a serious crime to serve a lengthy prison sentence.

"Alabama cannot afford to build enough prisons to put everyone convicted of a felony in prison," he said. "There's not enough money in the general fund to pay for all the prisons we would need to do that."

Oakes said releasing an inmate on parole allows the state to have oversight of the prisoner's life for a period of time, such as sending them to a transition center before they return to their community, having them meet with a parole officer on a regular basis, or find a job and receive treatment for drug addictions. Other conditions of their parole can include requiring them undergo random drug testing. Inmates who complete their sentence have no such conditions as part of their release.

"It's more cost effective, better for the state and better for society to release an inmate on parole," Oakes said.

Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly agrees it would be impossible, based on a lack of prison space, to incarcerate everyone convicted of a felony. Nevertheless, he gets frustrated at times by the early releases. He said sometimes his office has barely had time to complete its paperwork on a conviction and sentencing before it receives a letter that the inmate is being considered for parole.

Connolly used the case of a Florence man convicted of vehicular homicide in February for killing a woman in a 2005 wreck. The man was sentenced to five years in prison and is already being considered for parole. Connolly said he will do all he can to ensure the man, Daniel Natjiblu Baker, is not allowed to leave prison early at a Nov. 26 parole hearing.

"It's very frustrating to have to start fighting to keep someone in prison within weeks after they were sent there," Connolly said.

Oakes said just because Baker is being considered for parole does not mean he will be released early. Of the about 10,000 inmates considered for parole each year, only 2,500 to 3,000 are granted.

"Fewer than one-third of the inmates released from prison each year are released on parole," he said. "More than one-third are released on a split sentence that was determined by a local judge and the remainder complete their entire sentence."

Lauderdale County Circuit Court Judge Mike Jones said he gets frustrated by how quickly some inmates he sends to prison are returned home.

"I remember many years ago when somebody got a two-year sentence, they would spend pretty close to two years in prison," Jones said. "Then when the prison system started to get overcrowded and they started sending people home early, the judges would sentence someone they wanted to spend two years in prison to three years because they knew they would be get out early. They had to inflate sentences to compensate for the early releases.

"Now, to make sure someone you want to spend two years in prison serves their time before being released on parole, you have to give them 10 to 15 years. The entire system has gotten totally out of kilter."

With more people being sentenced to prison every year, Jones fears the problems with Alabama's prison system will only get worse.

"We are already putting people on probation that don't need to be on probation. We are putting people on work release that don't need to be in work release," he said. "We are having to put them there because we have nowhere else to put them."

Graham doubts Alabama will build enough additional prisons to accommodate the overflow of inmates.

"Everybody wants to send people who commit crimes to prison, but most people don't want their taxes to increase so the state can build more prisons and they don't want them built in their community," Graham said. "It's a huge problem that's not going to be easy to solve."

Jones said the overcrowding problem is not limited to state prisons.

"My work-release program is essentially full. My jail is over full. The probation office is overloaded," he said. "We're stretched to the limit with no end in sight."

Jail overcrowding is also an issue in Colbert County, according to officials there. Franklin County has built a new jail to provide space for an overgrowing number of inmates.

Connolly said the Alabama Sentencing Commission is working to solve the overcrowding problem by establishing alternatives to prison, such as drug courts and community corrections programs. The board is also working on developing truth in sentencing legislation that would require someone sentenced to 10 years in prison to serve 10 years. Someone sentenced to 20 years would serve that many years behind bars.

Lynda Flynt, executive director of the sentencing commission, said while many of the alternatives to prison have been implemented and are working well, it will be several years before truth in sentencing becomes law in Alabama.

The truth in sentencing law was scheduled to be implemented in 2009, but Flynt said it will be at least 2010 before it's adopted.

"Until we do something about our prison overpopulation and until we get a new women's prison, we just can't go there," she said. "Truth in sentencing is probably going to increase the number of people being incarcerated and we must have a place to put those people."

Besides freeing up space for the most violent offenders, Flynt said using community corrections programs - such as work-release - is less expensive than sentencing people convicted of non-violent crimes to prison.

Oakes expects the problem of not having space to house all the inmates sent to Alabama's prison system to get even worse in coming years and said more prisoners, especially women convicted of non-violent crimes, will be released on parole to create space in prison for more violent offenders.

Jones said a good way to start reducing prison overcrowding in Alabama would be to become more proactive in preventing and treating drug abuse.

He said most of the people who come through his court have a drug problem. Even when they are not charged with a drug offense, many of them were under the influence of drugs when they commit a crime or stole something trying to get money to buy drugs.

Connolly estimates 95 percent of the crimes he prosecutes are drug-related.

Graham agrees. "Now days, drug possession is pretty much as common as a speeding ticket. A lot of people who steal did it so they could buy drugs."

He and Connolly said drug court requires participants to undergo rehabilitation for their addictions. They must be tested frequently for drug use, meet with court officials monthly and take part in other intervention efforts. Officials say it is a good start toward reducing prison overcrowding and illegal drug use.

Jones said the state needs to provide more money for drug courts.

"The state is going to have to put more resources into preventing drug abuse and into treatment for people who become addicted to drugs," Jones said. "Until they do that, we are going to be trapped in a never-ending downward spiral."

Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com.